Building Feminist Movements and Organizations

Lydia Alpízar Durán has worked with AWID since 2003 as Manager of the Feminist Movements and Organizations Programme, and has recently been appointed as the organization's new Executive Director.Noel Payne is an activist and alternative entrepreneur promoting the development of the Costa Rican organic movement.Anahi Russo Garrido is a Mexican-Canadian anthropologist. She is currently a PhD student in Women's and Gender studies at Rutgers University. She previously worked with AWID as a research assistant contributing to organizational strengthening and movement building.

• Introduction - Building feminist movements and organizations: learning from experience / Lydia Alpízar DuránPart I: Challenging power and revisioning leadership1.Re-politicization of the women's movement and feminism in Argentina: the experience of Pan y Rosas / Andrea D'Atri2.A Jewish Orthodox women's revolution - the case of Kolech / Margalit Shilo3.An insight into feminist organizations / Yamini Mishra and Nalini Singh4.Empowering womanspace: power distribution and dynamics in Christian feminist community / Kelsey Rice and Ann Crews MeltonPart II: Revisiting common organizational practices5.New democratic exercises in Mexican feminist organizations / Adriana Medina Espino6.Linking empowerment and democracy: a challenge to women's groups in Quebec / Nancy Guberman, Jennifer Beeman, Jocelyne Lamoreux, Danielle Fournier and Lise Gervais7.Gender mainstreaming in development organizations: organizational discourse and the perils of institutional change / Nicholas Piálek8.Feminists, factions and fictions in rural Canada / Leona M. EnglishPart III: Building organizational capacity and resources9.A model for social change: 15 years investing in Mexican women / Emilienne de León, Amanda Mercedes Gigler, Lucero González and Margaret Schellenberg10.Reflections on strengthening leadership in community based organizations in India / Pramada Menon11.Virtual Seminar on Gender and Trade - an innovative process / Verónica Baracat, Phyllida Cox and Norma SanchisPart IV: Broadening the base of movements12.Zimbabwe Women Writers: from inception to 2004 / Mary O. Tandon13.Amnesty for Women: building mechanisms to integrate and empower migrant women in Hamburg, Germany / Sol Viviana Rojas and Raquel Aviles Caminero14.The Korean Women's Trade Union: a foothold for women's workers rights / Jinock Lee15.Power in bridges: a Romanian story about spreading feminist values / Camelia Blaga16.Widening the base of the feminist movement in Pakistan / Shahnaz IqbalPart V: Advancing movements' work in situations of conflict17.The Women's Emancipatory Constituent process for peace in Colombia / Yusmidia Solano18.From individual struggle to national struggle: Palestinian women in the State of Israel / Trees Zbidat-Kosterman19.Equal representation in a divided society: the feminist experience in Israel / Dalia Sachs and Hannah Safran20.The valued identity of 'motherhood' as strategically used by Indonesia's Suara Ibu Peduli / Monika S.W. DoxeyPart VI: Campaigns as a means to build movements21.The remobilization of the Algerian women's movement through the 20 Ans Barakat campaign / Caroline Brac de la Perrière22.Advocating sexual rights: the campaign for the reform of the Turkish penal code / Liz Ecervik Amado23.An Inter-American Convention on Sexual Rights and Reproductive Rights: we're campaigning! / Elizabeth C. Plácido24.A matter of life or death: campaigning to build support for the defence of women's rights in Nigeria / Titi Salaam25.The evolution of discourse: the campaign to change the family law in Morocco / Alexandra Pittman (+ endnote: 'in association with...')Editors and contributors

'Finally a book that lets us get inside the kitchens of women's organizations and feminist movements. This unique collection of diverse voices highlights the pains, victories and lessons of movement building: a must-read for anyone searching for the answers on how social change really happens.'Joanna Kerr, former Executive Director of AWID, Canada'In a world with increasing challenges to advance women's rights and gender equality, this collection of essays and case studies shed light on some of the ways women and feminist organizations from different regions are organizing and building collective power. Much needed!!!'Geetanjali Misra, Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action (CREA), India'A book that enables us to travel around the globe and learn about events and efforts that will probably, and unfortunately, never be explored by the mainstream historians. What is described in the book should be extremely important to all people, especially women, who know that we live in an unjust and cruel world that needs urgently to be remodeled and transformed according to very different values and norms.'Sanja Sarnavka, B.a.B.e, Croatia'Each article give us clues to understand the complex realities in which women's organizations and initiatives are working on: conflict areas, weak democracies, fundamentalist contexts, and internal and external tensions, as well as the innovative ways in which they face them. Together, they show us the richness of the diversity of experiences, new strategies, new organizational forms, new leadership forms, the intersectionality of struggles, and particularly, the multiple ways in which women are building social and organizational practices responding to the challenges they face.'Virginia Vargas, Centro de la Mujer Peruana Flora Tristán, Peru'The book is an excellent resource for feminist scholars, students, and activists. All the contributions are relatively short and accessible.'Nadje Al-Ali, Director in Gender Studies, SOAS, Gender and Development